Gujarat poll campaign: Politics of fear runs riot?

Pratap Bhanu Mehta, stated that "the PM's Gujarat campaign shows politics of hope has been replaced entirely by politics of fear".

New Delhi, Dec 13: There is a sense of fear in the air. It's the politics that has ruined the mood of the country.

Why blame politics? It's actually the politicians who have pushed politics to the "gutter". What we have witnessed in the recent times as a part of the Gujarat Assembly elections campaign has left a bad taste in our mouth.

The way our netas (leader) throw muck at each other is not only crass, uncivilised and ruthless, but it's dangerous for our democracy. During the Gujarat Assembly elections campaign, which ended on Tuesday, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) took the lead to turn the entire atmosphere "communal" that people are left with a sense of fear.

That does not make the Congress any "holy", although newly-elected Congress president Rahul Gandhi tried to wash its 'sins' by visiting more than two dozen temples in the last few months.

While the Congress and Rahul called the temple tour as "spiritual", the critics called it soft Hindutva to woo Gujaratis, who because of letting the BJP helm the state for a record period of 22 years, seem to have a soft corner for practitioners of Hindutva politics.

Then the Congress erred by repeating its "chaiwallah" jibe against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and its now-suspended leader Mani Shankar Aiyar called Modi a "neech kisam ka aadmi" (a low-life kind of person).

In order to tame the raging Congress, the BJP took the 'bull' by the horns by adding elements of anti-Muslim and anti-Pakistan rhetoric. The BJP also painted the Congress as a pro-Muslim party by accusing the grand old party of having "Mughali mentality".

While Rahul took a moral high ground by staying away from making any below-the-belt comments against Modi and the BJP, it's the PM who took the lead in spreading canards against the Congress and Pakistan.

The biggest alleged "false" charge during the Gujarat election campaign was allegedly made by PM Modi. The PM at a rally stated that former PM Manmohan Singh and other Congress leaders are a part of a conspiracy hatched along with the "enemy nation", Pakistan, to influence elections in Gujarat.

His Pakistan remarks were strongly refuted by Singh and the Pakistan government. Modi was criticised by his own party leaders like Shatrughan Sinha and the BJP's ally, the Shiv Sena, for "communalising the atmosphere" of the country by "making unsubstantiated and unbelievable stories every day against political opponents".

In a column for The Indian Express, writer and vice-chancellor of Ashoka University, Pratap Bhanu Mehta, stated that "the PM's Gujarat campaign shows politics of hope has been replaced entirely by politics of fear".

"The conduct of the PM during the Gujarat election should set alarm bells ringing. Modi's innuendo in an election speech in Banaskantha, in which he strung together communal canards and conspiracy theories, marks a new and dangerous low in Indian politics," Mehta added.

In a strongly-worded opinion piece, Mehta stated that the PM was "spreading poison".

"Whether he wins or loses in Gujarat, he is spreading a poison from which Indian politics will find it hard to recover for quite some time. In shoring his power through conflict he is taking India down the road to ruin."

It won't be fair to put all the blame solely on Modi for turning the country's political atmosphere communal and divisive. Other leaders and parties too are to be equally blamed for the mess.

However, the responsibility of bringing back some amount of sanity into the whole mad affair of winning elections goes to Modi, the "chowkidar" (caretaker or watchman) of India.

OneIndia News